Team A was robbed. Team B always gets favourable treatment. Player C is the umpires’ love child. Player D can’t buy a free kick. Some will argue umpiring is too technical, others that it’s too lax. Umpires try to make themselves the centre of attention. Umpires have no feel for the game.

That's just a sample from 2014. But one that could have been taken in 1974, because the arguments remain the same. And so do the answers to the questions. Namely, that there really aren’t any. And that’s presuming there’s a problem to begin with. Which I don’t think there is.

Again this past weekend you might have assumed there was a problem given the discontent surrounding the Sydney-Essendon clash at the SCG on Friday night and the North Melbourne-Geelong game at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

In the Swans’ scrappy win over the Bombers, perhaps the most quoted statistic, certainly by unhappy Essendon fans, was the free kick count of 24-11 in favour of Sydney.

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Yes, that’s a fair discrepancy. Did it cost Essendon the game? Hardly. The facts are that in a tight, ugly game plagued by endless packs around the ball, it was the Swans' performance in consistently getting to the ball first, getting their heads over the ball, and drawing the lion’s share of free kicks for high contact thanks to some sloppy tackling.

Bomber fans would be better advised to consider their team’s poor use of the football, particularly early, compared to its opponent’s, when reflecting on the reasons for their 22-point defeat.

At Etihad, North Melbourne supporters were whipping themselves into a frenzy about a series of off-the-ball penalties paid against the Roos in the second quarter, from which Geelong built what ended up being a decisive lead.

But North fans should also ask themselves why a player with the experience of Brent Harvey even put himself at risk of conceding a free kick with a couple of unnecessary actions well behind play.

Or why Majak Daw wasted his time giving Shane Kersten a shove in the goalsquare when he should have been concentrating on the shot from Joel Selwood about to come his way. Of course the Roos could also ponder some lamentable goalkicking which at one stage had them 3.10.

But whether it’s goalkicking, disposal around the ground or just poor decision-making of the sort that typified Sunday afternoon’s clash between Melbourne and Brisbane, it’s games like these that remind you that even AFL players make a decent number of errors.

And that if we critique everyone on the playing field by their ratio of mistakes to correct decisions, the umpires probably emerge with a much better report card than the players over whom they’re presiding. Especially when you consider the hundred-odd adjudications they may make in the run of play beyond merely blowing the whistle to award a free.

New umpiring chiefs Wayne Campbell and Hayden Kennedy made a philosophical decision at the start of this year for their charges to adopt a “back to basics” approach to umpiring. And by and large I think it’s been a successful push.

There’s been one major issue, that of rewarding the tackler appropriately, but after players who were caught in possession were at one stage being shown too much latitude, even that trend has been corrected. And a greater preparedness to listen more to feedback and make those corrections when necessary has been a hallmark of the new regime.

The fans may never be overly satisfied with umpiring standards, but players currently seem to be, as Geelong’s Mathew Stokes told SEN on Sunday.

“I think they do a great job, especially this year,” Stokes said. “I think a couple of years ago it was ‘us against them’. When you used to ask them a question they used to blow you off a little bit. But I find now they’re more willing to discuss what they’re thinking and how the game is going.

“I had a chat to one of the umpires at half-time [on Saturday] about a free kick that wasn’t paid, and he gave me his version of what happened, and you can just see what they’re thinking. I think a little bit of respect both ways goes a long way.”

The umpiring fraternity isn’t naive enough to think it's suddenly going to start earning the respect of the supporters as well.

But if the players are OK with what we’re seeing, and their coaches are at least realistic about never achieving umpiring perfection, perhaps the fans need to let go of a tiresome old cop-out and start pointing the finger at their own teams a bit more rather than the men with the whistle.

And while I'm at it...

REPUTATION TAKES A DIVE

I'm not as outraged by Lindsay Thomas' penchant for staging for free kicks as some. There's a lot more reprehensible things you can do on a football field than try to con the umpire into awarding you a free kick.

But it's a habit that is certainly seeing the North Melbourne forward climb near the top of the ''most-disliked player'' stakes.

The immediate reaction to Thomas' exaggerated lurch forward after contact from Geelong's James Kelly was scathing. Funnily enough, what was far more costly to his team were the couple of occasions on which Thomas ''burnt'' teammates in better position in search of another goal.

Both habits, though, as his coach Brad Scott conceded, are conspiring to rob Thomas of the kudos his pure footballing talents deserve.

This is the third year in a row the forward has averaged two goals a game or better. But Thomas needs to get the amateur theatrics and selfishness out of his game for that to finally be the main topic of conversation when his name comes up.

A SCATTY SEASON

The Kangaroos have been central to any discussion this season about inconsistency. But perhaps they are only one part of the story, Saturday's combatants at the Adelaide Oval also worthy contenders for the ''Can't Pick 'Em Cup''.

Adelaide managed to undo all its good work of the previous week against West Coast, potentially costing itself a spot in September as it meekly surrendered an early four-goal lead. But the Crows have done it all year.

They lost to Melbourne at home, then fixed up Collingwood. They dropped one to Carlton then hit back weeks later with a great performance against North Melbourne. They lost to an out-of-sorts Essendon then beat a red-hot Port Adelaide. Now this.

West Coast? Well, that tall forward combination managed to click, while Matt Priddis finally got some midfield help from Andrew Gaff and Luke Shuey. Where's that been all year?

Now the Eagles are an outside finals chance again. And the Crows prospects not nearly so healthy. Can the Eagles keep it going and Adelaide bounce back? Who would know. They certainly don't.

FAR TOO CUTE

It's been a while since we gave Channel Seven's football coverage a clip. But after some recent improvements, things lapsed again in Sydney on Friday night when the broadcast seemed to be taken over by a French arthouse cinema director.

Too many close-ups, shots out of context and the mystery goalkicker angle might be de rigueur if you're exploring themes of self-absorbed intellectual angst, but they tend to get in the way of knowing what's going on in a game of AFL football.

Come on, guys. If we want the former, we'll gladly head to Cinema Nova with a decaffeinated soy latte in hand.